NZ will not ‘prejudge’ China bid to join regional trade pact

Jacinda Ardern said last weekend that China should be allowed to join the CPTPP if it met the minimum requirements.

Jacinda Ardern, in Auckland on Wednesday, is at odds with Canberra, which has signalled it could veto China’s application. Picture: Getty Images

New Zealand has said it will not “pre-judge” what hurdles China may have to jump to join a lucrative trade pact which commits all 11 member states to high standards on issues such as free data flow, freedom of association and the elimination of forced labour.

The comments come after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last weekend that China should be allowed to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership if it met the minimum requirements, putting her at odds with Canberra which has signalled it could veto China’s application.

New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor told an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation ministerial press conference on Wednesday morning that all CPTPP members had committed to “maintaining the high standards that were hard-fought and hard-won and I don’t think anyone has a view that there should be any movement from those standards”.

Asked by The Australian if China would be expected to disband its forced labour camps for Muslim Uighurs in the western Xinjiang region or end its economic coercion of Australia as a “minimum standard” of entry into the CPTPP, Mr O’Connor replied: “We’re not going to prejudge what China might have to change or do”.

“It’s up to those applicant economies to reach the standards we have set and that work well for us.”

China officially applied to join the trade pact on September 16. Taiwan lodged its own application six days later which Beijing has vowed to block because the island refuses to concede it is part of China.

But Mr O’Connor said CPTPP member nations — which include Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and New Zealand — “have always been open to accession by applicants”.

“We have all welcomed applications from the UK, China and Chinese Taipei… but accession requests do mean those applicants will have to look at standards required and become accepted.”

The CPTPP pact was salvaged from the remnants of the original Transpacific Partnership promoted by former US president Barack Obama but abandoned in 2017 by his successor, Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has not rejoined it.

Foreign and trade ministers from APEC’s 21 member states, including Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Trade Minister Dan Tehan, met online on Tuesday night where they agreed to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and further reduce inequities in Covid-19 vaccine access.

APEC members pledged at a special meeting in June to expand sharing and manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines and lift trade barriers for medicines.

Both Mr O’Connor and New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta talked down rumours of tensions at the forum — over Taiwan’s CPTPP application and the US offer to host the 2023 round of APEC meetings — saying they were keeping the focus on climate change and the global pandemic which had cost the region 81 million jobs.

The US has not hosted an APEC forum since 2011, but China and Russia have yet to officially support its bid. Moscow is reportedly concerned some of its representatives may not be permitted to attend because they are subject to sanctions.

Ms Mahuta conceded the 2023 APEC host issue had not yet been resolved, given both the US and Peru had offered to do so, but added: “We’re hopeful that we will get there”.